Living with the hawk
by Robert Currie
Living with the Hawk explores the traumatic events in the life of Blair Russell, a high school football player who struggles to do what's right in tough circumstances. Key characters are his brother, Blake, the team's quarterback; Jordan Phelps, the star receiver, a kid with a need to control others; Paul Russell, his father, an Anglican priest; and Barb Russell, his mother. Blair is the subject of taunting and hazing, including physical intimidation on the football field by Jordan. His brother Blake used to stick up for him, but seems ambivalent about helping him now, a concern that Blair both resents and yet understands. At a football party where beer flows freely, Blair spots Jordan and a group of his laughing, drunken buddies, including his brother; he is shocked when he sees that they are urinating on a girl who has passed out. From that moment conflict grows between the brothers. In the backdrop to the event Blair begins to suspect that his brother is not who he thought...